Posted by Viridis on July 12, 2003, at 21:54:32
In reply to OCD people, meds?, please read!, posted by daizy on July 12, 2003, at 18:44:23
I think what you're describing are "ruminating thoughts" -- negative ideas that you can't get over, playing all the "what if" scenarios even though you know it's not helpful or productive. I used to experience severe episodes of this, associated with anxiety and depression; generally it would be one issue, usually a real one, but I would blow it out of proportion, think of all the possible negative outcomes, etc. I recognized that this wasn't useful, but just couldn't get rid of the negative thoughts.
This is "obsessive", but I'm not sure if it qualifies as OCD. I do have slight compulsive tendencies, especially when I'm tired (e.g., I'll check a door several times to see if it's locked, look in a suitcase 10 times to verify that I packed some important item, and so on), but no compulsions that actually interfere with my life. My sister has been diagnosed with "real" OCD, so there's probably some relationship between the conditions, perhaps with different manifestations and/or degrees of severity.
Klonopin plus occasional Xanax greatly reduced these problems for me. My sister did pretty well with Luvox (fluvoxamine, an SSRI) plus Xanax as needed. I can't tolerate SSRIs at all, but benzos have really helped.
poster:Viridis
thread:241289
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20030708/msgs/241331.html